NC Radiology Center to Deploy AI Tools for Enhanced Breast Cancer Care

Physician-owned radiology company US Radiology Specialists is partnering with advanced artificial intelligence (AI) software company Volpara Health to deploy AI tools at Charlotte Radiology with the aim of enhancing mammography services and breast cancer care.

Volpara Health’s AI solutions support patient communications and reporting, risk assessment, quality assurance for mammograms, and breast density result analytics that help identify which patients would benefit from additional imaging.

"With each of our 16 breast imaging centers now equipped with the latest Volpara software tool suite, Charlotte Radiology can better fulfill our most important mission – diagnosing breast cancer early and supporting our patients through their treatment," said Lindsay Muns, group president of physician practices for US Radiology and CEO of Charlotte Radiology and Upstate Carolina Radiology, in the press release. "Implementing advanced technologies like these help us continuously improve both experiences and outcomes for our patients across the Carolinas."

This partnership adds additional software to Charlotte Radiology’s existing tool suite and builds upon the provider’s previous work with Volpara Health.

"Our partnership with Volpara allows us as radiologists to keep our focus where we need it: on each patient that we see. With Volpara, we are assured of accurate and timely reporting, as well as high quality data. This streamlines our workflow and helps us deliver excellent patient care as a team," said Amy Sobel, MD, section chief of Charlotte Radiology Breast Imaging, in the press release.

AI solutions and analytics are increasingly being utilized to improve cancer care.

Miami Cancer Institute, a branch of Baptist Health South Florida, announced earlier this month that it would be expanding its partnership with oncology data and analytics company COTA to eliminate health disparities and care gaps in cancer treatment.

The collaboration will use EHR and claims data to define and analyze cancer care disparities, which will allow the organizations to develop strategies to address them. Before this expansion, Miami Cancer Institute used COTA’s analytics platform to generate insights from testing patterns for the BRCA gene. Their work led to the implementation of blanket BRCA mutation testing for all newly diagnosed breast cancer patients.  

Partnerships like these have significant potential to improve access to preventive care, which was negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2021, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) reported that the pandemic led to sharp decreases in cancer screening tests, which are key for early detection and treatment. Experts warned that screening delays could result in “missed” cancers becoming larger and more advanced by the time they are ultimately detected, which could result in poorer outcomes.

However, the NCI noted that the pandemic also led to innovations in cancer screening, such as using video conferencing tools to educate people about screenings and home-based screening tests.